Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Colonizing or thriving in areas that have been disturbed, as by fire or cultivation.
- noun A species, especially a plant, that colonizes or thrives in disturbed areas.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In botany, growing in waste places or among rubbish.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany Any
plant growing inrubbish or very poor soil - noun botany A plant tending to
volunteer in disturbed soil. - adjective botany That grows in rubbish or poor soil
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Such remnants are expected to lose a significant part of their biodiversity due to the increase of lianas and ruderal species.
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Recurrent disturbance tends to select for species with ruderal characteristics, some of which are found in species living in sites where freeze – thaw cycles predominate.
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The spray-forest is vulnerable to disturbance by trampling, which allows penetration by ruderal species such as Lantana camara, and when grossly disturbed the forest does not regenerate easily, giving way to xeric scrub.
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Large-scale slope failures, such as active layer detachment, destroy plant communities but open niches for colonization by new generations of existing species or immigrant species with ruderal characteristics (fast growth, short life span, large reproductive capacity, and widespread dispersal of seeds).
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Reliance upon wind dispersal is common among many weedy or ruderal species.
Seed dispersal Wikipedia 2009
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The 'rainforest' is vulnerable to disturbance by trampling, which allows penetration by ruderal species such as Lantana camara.
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Engelmann and I have been noting the species truly indigenous here which, becoming ruderal or campestral, are increasing in the number of individuals instead of diminishing as the country becomes more settled and forests removed.
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 Charles Darwin 1845
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Researchers added that one of the most surprising findings was that ruderal ( "weedy") butterfly species that breed on "weedy" plants in disturbed habitats and are highly mobile are actually declining faster than "non-weedy" species -- those that specialize in one habitat type.
Scientific Blogging 2010
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"Butterfly folks generally consider these ruderal species to be 'junk species,' sort of the way bird watchers think of pigeons and starlings," said lead author Arthur Shapiro.
Scientific Blogging 2010
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"Butterfly folks generally consider these ruderal species to be 'junk species,' sort of the way bird watchers think of pigeons and starlings," said lead author Arthur Shapiro.
Scientific Blogging 2010
knitandpurl commented on the word ruderal
"Rafinesque perfected his variant of this honorable philosophy while botanizing in the literal backyards of my childhood, examining ruderal plants I've known all my life, and so I have appropriated it from him, with minor tweaks."
John Jeremiah Sullivan, quoted in "Reality Effects" by James Wood, p 136 of the December 19 & 26, 2011 issue of The New Yorker
January 1, 2012
qms commented on the word ruderal
When clearcutters take their brutal toll
No tree of size protrudes at all.
The scenery left
Is sadly bereft
Of all that's not wretchedly ruderal.
October 7, 2015